RÉSUMÉ
The present investigation was conducted to study genetic parameters for sixteen characters viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, head diameter, leaf length, leaf width, number of leaves per plant, 100 seed weight, volume weight, seed yield/plant, seed length, seed width, stem girth, leaf area index, chlorophyll content and oil content at ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research during kharif-2022 and rabi-2022-23, respectively. The study included a total of 50 advanced (BC2F6) interspecific derivatives derived using five diploid annual compatible Helianthus species along with three checks (ARM-243B, DRSF-108 and DRSF-113). Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for all the traits. High variation was observed for plant height and seed yield/plant and lowest was observed for 100 seed weight, oil content and head diameter. The difference between GCV and PCV was low for all the characters indicating less influence of environmental factors on the expression of these traits. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance in percent of mean was observed for plant height, leaf width, number of leaves/plant, volume weight, 100 seed weight, stem girth, leaf area index and chlorophyll content indicating additive gene action in the expression of these traits. Simple phenotypic selection may be effective for improving these characters. High heritability coupled with low genetic advance was observed for days to maturity and oil content suggesting involvement of non-additive gene action in the expression of these traits indicating little scope for further improvement through individual plant selection. The results showed that the experimental material used had a substantial quantity of genetic variability to be used in crop development programs in the future.
RÉSUMÉ
Poor germination in fodder crops is one of the major reasons responsible for lower than potential green forage yield of cereals. Invigoration treatments aids to promote and accelerate germination, increase the vigour of seedlings, and improve stand establishment in field, vegetable, and horticultural crops. Therefore, a study was carried out to evaluate the effect of different seed invigoration treatments on seed quality parameters viz., germination, field emergence, speed of germination, seedling length, dry weight and seedling vigour in fodder maize (Zea mays L.). The experiment was laid out in factorial completely randomized design with two factors i.e., months and treatments having 5 different seed priming treatment combinations i.e., - Priming with water for 12 hrs., - Priming with NaCl @ 4 g / litre of water for 8 hours., - Priming with Poly Ethylene Glycol solution @ 10g / litre of water for 8 hours., – Priming with GA3 @ 0.2 g / litre of water for 8 hours and - Control (unprimed seeds) and the treatments were replicated four times during Rabi, 2022-23 at the Department of Seed Science and Technology, Seed Research and Technology Centre, College of Agriculture, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, Telangana. The results obtained from this study indicate that hormonal priming with GA3 can be successfully employed to improve germination, field emergence, seedling length, dry weight, and seedling vigour in fodder maize (Zea mays L.). At the end of the study, it was observed that hormonal priming with GA3 had a significantly positive influence on mean germination per cent (90%), field emergence (87%), speed of germination (20.221%), seedling length (34.17 cm), dry weight (0.792 g), seedling vigour index-I (3082.05) and seedling vigour index-II (71.42) over the control.